Get in on the act

Ever thought of getting in on the act of upcycled fashion but not sure how to start? Think your sewing skills are not up to it? Well, the best way to start re-purposing clothes is to grab yourself something that already fits and that you like the basic shape and colour of. Build up your confidence by just adding a few touches here and there in the way of decoration to transform something mundane into a unique fashion statement.

For this project we took a simple high street brand mini skirt from a charity shop.The black and white theme was what caught our eye so we decided to stick to that. A quick trawl through our stash produced a triangle of polka dot fabric left over from a bunting project and a reel of black and white ribbon from a bridesmaid’s commission from over 10 years ago (see, we never throw anything away!)

A quick play around with positioning the pieces resulted in a fab result that no one would ever guess was a result of trying to use up a random piece of bunting!

Always look at the project and arrange the order of doing things according to what needs to be hidden and what doesn’t. For this skirt the polka dot needed to be sewn down first, hidden under the black flap of the skirt. We pinned it first and then sewed with a zig-zag stitch to make sure the fabric doesn’t fray too much afterwards. Then we pinned and sewed the ribbon with a line of stitch on each outside edge. The ends of the ribbon were tucked under the top and bottom of the skirt to keep the look tidy.

Finally we pepped it up with a pop of red in the shape of ribbon roses and toning beads.This part took as long as the rest because we dug out a selection of buttons, beads etc before we decided which combination looks best. Take care to space these out evenly or it will look a bit amateurish and you don’t want that!